INFOBrief
Dell™ PowerEdge™ 2650
High Performance Computing
Clusters
Key Points
High Performance
Computing Clusters
(HPCC) offer a cost
effective, scalable
solution for parallel
computing system
platforms designed
for demanding,
compute intensive
applications
Dell Product Group

Second generation of Dell’s High Performance Computing Cluster
(HPCC) provides computational-intensive capacity leveraging the
latest technology available in the market.

HPCC is a cost effective method for delivering a parallel computing
system platform, targeted towards compute- and data-intensive
applications.

Through Dell HPCC, users can aggregate standards-based server and
storage resources into powerful supercomputers to provide an
inexpensive yet powerful solution.

High Performance Computing Clusters (HPCCs) are popular methods
for solving these complex problems because of their low price points
and excellent scalability.
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
Dell helps provide investment protection by offering solutions based
on industry standard building blocks that can be re-deployed as
traditional application servers as users integrate newer technology into
their network infrastructures.

Dell delivers high-volume, standards-based solutions into scientific
and compute-intensive environments that can benefit from economiesof-scale, and add systems as requirements change.

Dell’s technology and methodology are designed to provide high
reliability, price/performance leadership, easy scalability and
simplicity by bundling order codes for hardware, software and
support services for 8, 16, 32, and 64 node clusters.
Product Description
Compute Nodes
Master Node
The concept of HPCC or “Beowulf” (the project name used by original
designers) clusters originated at the Center of Excellence in Space Data and
Information Sciences (CESDIS), located at the NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center in Maryland. The project’s goal was to design a cost-effective,
parallel computing cluster built from off-the-shelf components that would
satisfy the computational requirements of the earth and space sciences
community.
As cluster solutions have gained acceptance for solving complex
computing problems, High Performance Computing Clusters (HPCC) are
starting to replace supercomputers in this role. The cost of commodity
HPCC systems has changed a purchase decision from evaluating
expensive proprietary solutions, where cost was not the primary issue, to
evaluating vendors based on their ability to deliver exceptional price-toperformance ratios and support capabilities.
Logical View of a High Performance Computing Cluster
External
Storage
Dell Product Group
The strategy behind parallel computing is to “divide and conquer.” By
dividing a complex problem into smaller component tasks that can be
worked on simultaneously, the problem can often be solved more quickly.
This can help save time and resources, as well as monetary costs. Dell’s
HPCC uses a multi-computer architecture, as depicted in Figure 1. It
features a parallel computing system that consists of one master node and
multiple compute nodes connected via standard network interconnects.
All of the server nodes in a typical HPCC run an industry standard
operating system, which typically offers substantial savings over
proprietary operating systems.
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Figure 1
Logical View of High Performance Computing Cluster
The master node of the cluster acts as a server for the Network File System
(NFS), job-scheduling tasks, security, and acting as a gateway to end-users.
The master node assigns each of the compute nodes with one or more tasks
to perform as the larger task is broken into sub-functions. As a gateway,
the master node allows users to gain access to the compute nodes.
The sole task of the compute nodes is to execute assigned tasks in parallel.
A compute node does not have a keyboard, mouse, video card, or monitor.
Access to client nodes is provided via remote connections through the
master node.
From a user's perspective, a HPCC appears as a Massively Parallel
Processor (MPP) system. Common methods of using the system are to
access the master node either directly or through Telnet or remote login
from personal workstations. Once logged onto the master node, users can
prepare and compile their parallel applications and spawn jobs on a
desired number of compute nodes in the cluster.
In addition to compute nodes and master nodes, key components of HPCC
include: systems management utilities, applications, file systems,
interconnects, and storage and software solution stacks.

Dell Product Group
Dell OpenManage Systems Management
Because HPCC systems can consist of many nodes, it is important to be
able to monitor and manage these nodes from a single console. It is
possible to have thousands of nodes within one cluster. To help
manage such a sizable cluster, Dell OpenManage™ systems
management utilities are designed to provide system discovery, event
filtering, systems monitoring, proactive alerts, inventory and asset
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management as well as remote manageability for the compute nodes
and master nodes.
The Enterprise Remote Access is a separate management fabric that
offers features that include: remote power operations; virtualization of
FLOPPY, CDROM, and other peripherals; console redirect; and BIOS
flash update

Applications
Applications may be written to run in parallel on multiple systems and
use the message-passing programming model. Jobs of a parallel
application are spawned on compute nodes, which work
collaboratively until the jobs are complete. During the execution,
compute nodes use standard message-passing middleware to
coordinate activities and information passing.

Parallel Virtual File System
A Parallel Virtual File System (PVFS) is used as a high-performance,
large parallel file system for temporary storage and as an
infrastructure for parallel I/O research. PVFS stores data on the
existing local file systems of multiple cluster nodes, enabling many
clients access to the data simultaneously. Within a HPC cluster, PVFS
enables high-performance I/O that is comparable to that of other
proprietary file systems.

Interconnect
To communicate with each other, the cluster nodes are connected
through a network. The interconnect technology chosen depends on
the amount of interaction between nodes when an application is
executed. Some applications are similar to batch environments, and the
communication between compute nodes is limited. For these
environments, Fast Ethernet may be adequate. However, in
environments that require more frequent communication, a Gigabit
Ethernet interconnect is preferable.
Some application environments can also benefit from a special
interconnect that has been design to provide high-speed and low
latency between the compute nodes. For these applications, Dell’s
bundles are available with Myricom’s Myrinet.

Dell Product Group
High Performance Computing Cluster Solution Stack
Dell partners with service providers to deliver the software
components necessary for implementing a HPCC solution. The HPCC
stack includes the job-scheduler, cluster management, message passing
libraries, and compilers.
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High Performance Computing Market
Target markets for high performance computing clusters are: higher
education, large corporations, federal government, and technology sectors
that require high performance computational computing. Industry
examples include: oil and gas, aerospace, automotive, chemistry, national
security, financial and pharmaceutical.
Typical high computation applications include: war and airline
simulations, financial modeling, molecular modeling, fluid dynamics,
circuit board design, ocean flow analysis, seismic data filtering, and
visualizations.
Applications that use HPC clusters and their specific vertical markets can
be found in Table 1.
Table 1
Vertical Markets Appropriate for HPCC
Vertical
Description of Requirements
Typical Applications
Manufacturing
Crash worthiness, stress analysis, shock
and vibe, aerodynamics
Fluent, Radioss, Nastran,
Ansys, Powerflow
Energy
Seismic processing, geophysical
modeling, reservoir modeling
VIP, Eclipse, Vertias
Life Sciences
Drug design, bioinformatics, DNA
mapping, disease research
Blast, Charmn, NAMD, PCGamess, Gaussian
Digital Media
Render Farms
Renderman, Discreet
Finance
Portfolio Management (Monte Carlo
simulation), risk analysis
Barra, RMG, Sungard
Although market opportunities exist in environments made up of
thousands of nodes, standard HPCC configurations target the majority of
clusters within the 8-node to 128-node configuration range. Customers
investigating larger cluster configurations should contact the Dell
Professional Services organization for assistance.
Dell’s bundled HPCC solutions target customers with varying levels of
expertise, from complete turnkey solutions -- including hardware and
software - to easy-to-order hardware-only bundles. For those who do
require a complete solution, Dell also offers consulting assistance.
Dell Product Group
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Features and Benefits
The Dell High Performance Computing Cluster leverages many
advantages of Dell’s product line, including server, storage, peripheral,
and services components. By creating standard product offerings, Dell
solutions are designed to help minimize configuration complexity. These
standard packages consist of 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 node configurations.
The key technology features of a Dell High Performance Computing
cluster configuration are shown in Table 2.
Table 2
The Key Technology Features of a Dell HPCC Configuration
Feature
Full featured
hardware
configurations
PowerEdge™ 2650
(Compute Node)
PowerEdge 2650
(Master Node)
Dell Product Group
Function
Pre-bundled order codes for 8
node, 16 node, 32 node, 64 node
and 128 node configurations; 16 –
256 CPU configurations
 Dual Intel Xeon processors at
2.0GHz, 2.4GHz, 2.8GHz,
3.06GHz, and 3.2GHz with
533MHz FSB providing highest
performance2U form factor
 3 slots on separate I/O buses
 256MB of DDR SDRAM,
expandable to 12GB
 Configurable sized drives
(expandable to 5 drives) for
internal storage
o SCSI drives
 Dual Intel Xeon processors at
2.0GHz, 2.4GHz, 2.8GHz,
3.06GHz, and 3.2GHz with
533MHz FSB providing highest
performance2U form factor
 3 slots on separate I/O buses
 256MB of DDR SDRAM,
expandable to 12GB
 Configurable sized drives
(expandable to 5 drives) for
internal storage
o SCSI drives
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Benefit
Simplified ordering process and
pre-qualified configurations
 High performance compute
node for the most challenging
applications
 High density enables large
compute clusters in a rack
 Helps to minimize I/O
bottlenecks
 Flexibility for increasing
storage capacity on compute
node
 High performance and highly
available server in dense form
factor
Updated November 2003
Feature
Function
Interconnect –
The interconnect technologies in a
Options
HPCC configuration allow servers
Fast Ethernet – Low to communicate with each other
for node-to-node communications.
cost
Gigabit Ethernet –
High performance
Myrinet – High Speed
Low Latency
Storage Devices
PowerVault™ 220S SCSI external
storage device on the Master
Node for primary storage
Headless Operation The ability to operate a system
without keyboard, video or mouse
(KVM)
Redirection of serial ERA - Enhanced features for Outport
of-Band and Remote
Management to allow centralized
control of network devices through
serial console ports.
Operating System
Factory installation of Red Hat
software pre-install Linux operating system
Provides the capability to remotely
Wake on LAN
power-on compute nodes over the
Ethernet network
HPCC Software
Solution Stack –
Optional deliverable
through DPS
Benefit
The interconnect technology is
designed for message passing
between the nodes. Offering
Fast Ethernet and Gigabit
Ethernet enables customers to
choose between a low cost or
higher performance solution.
Myrinet provides a high speed
low latency interconnect for
application environments that
require frequent node-to-node
communication.
Provides a cost effective method
for a large amount of external
storage capabilities that can be
allocated across multiple
channels for maximized I/O
performance
Simplifies cable management
and helps lower cost of solution
by eliminating monitors,
keyboards and mouse
Helps increase manageability of
cluster from a single console
device.
Facilitates setup of cluster
configuration
Remote management tool that
can reduce system management
workload, provide flexibility to
the system administrator's job,
and help save time-consuming
effort and costs.
Dell tested tools for creating
system environment for parallel
computing infrastructure
Cluster Manager
Compilers
Job Scheduler
MKL, BLAS, Atlas
MPI interface
Server Management Embedded systems management Detects and remedies problems
detects errors such as fan failures within the cluster.
and temperature and voltage
problems, which generate alerts
and reports to Dell OpenManage
Console
Dell Product Group
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Key Customer Benefits
The performance of commodity computers and network hardware
continually improves as new technology is introduced and implemented.
At the same time, market conditions have led to decreases in the price of
these components. As a result, it is now practical to build parallel
computational systems based on low-cost, high-density servers, such as
the Dell PowerEdge 2650, rather than buy CPU time on expensive
supercomputers. Dell PowerEdge servers are tuned to take advantage of
the existing server/OS/application combination. Dell PowerEdge server
performance and price/performance are typically among the industry
leaders on a variety of benchmark standard scales (TPC-C, TPC-W;
SPECweb99).
Low cost and high performance are only two of the advantages of using a
Dell High Performance Computing Cluster solution. Other key benefits of
HPCC versus large Symmetric Multi Processors (SMP) are shown in Table
3.
Table 3
Comparison of SMP and HPCC Environments
Large SMPs
Dell Product Group
HPCC
Scalability
Fixed
Unbounded
Availability
High
High
Ease of Technology Refresh
Low
High
Application Porting
None
Required
Operating System Porting
Difficult
None
Service and Support
Expensive
Affordable
Standards vs. Proprietary
Proprietary
Standards
Vendor Lock-in
Required
None
System Manageability
Custom; better
usability
Standard;
moderate usability
Application Availability
High
Moderate
Reusability of Components
Low
High
Disaster Recovery Ability
Weak
Strong
Installation
Non-standard
Standard
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The features compared in Table 3 are defined as follows:
 Scalability: The ability to grow in overall capacity and to meet higher
usage demand as needed. When additional computational resources
are needed, servers can be added to the cluster. Clusters can consist of
thousands of servers.
Dell Product Group

Availability: The access to compute resources. To help ensure high
availability, it is necessary to remove any single point of failure in the
hardware and software. This helps to ensure that any individual
system component, the system as a whole, or the solution (i.e.,
multiple systems) stay continuously available. A HPCC solution offers
high availability because the components can be isolated and, in many
cases, the loss of a compute node in the cluster does not have a large
impact on the overall cluster solution. The workload of that node is
allocated among the remaining compute nodes.

Ease of Technology Refresh: Integrating a new processor, memory,
disk, or operating system technology can be accomplished with
relative ease. In HPCC, as technology moves forward, modular pieces
of the solution stack can be replaced as time, budget and needs require
or permit. There is no need for a one-time 'switch-over' to the latest
technology. In addition, new technology is often integrated more
quickly into standards-based volume servers than proprietary system
providers.

Service and Support: Total cost of ownership – including post-sales
costs of maintaining the hardware and software – from standard
upgrades to unit replacement to staff training and education, is
generally much lower when compared to proprietary implementations
that typically come with a high level of technical services due to their
inherently complex nature and sophistication.

Vendor Lock-in: Proprietary solutions require a commitment to a
particular vendor, whereas industry-standard implementations are
interchangeable. Many proprietary solutions require only components
that have been developed by that vendor. Depending on the revision
and technology, application performance may be diminished. HPCC
enables solutions to be built from the best-performing industry
standard components.

System Manageability: System management is the installation,
configuration and monitoring of key elements of computer systems,
such as hardware, operating system and applications. Most large SMPs
have proprietary enabling technologies (custom hardware extension
and software components) that can complicate the system
management. On the other hand, it is easier to manage one large
system compared to hundreds of nodes. However, with wide
deployment of network infrastructure and enterprise management
software, it is possible to easily manage multiple servers of a HPCC
system from a single point.
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
Reusability of Components: Commodity components can be reused
when off line, therefore preserving a customer’s investment. In the
future, when refreshing a Dell HPCC PowerEdge solution with next
generation platforms, the older Dell PowerEdge compute nodes can be
deployed as File/Print servers, Web Servers or other infrastructure
servers.

Installation: Specialized equipment generally requires expert
installation teams trained to handle such cases. They also require
dedicated facilities such as power, cooling, etc. For HPCC, since the
components are “off-the-shelf” commodities, installation is generic
and widely supported.
Hardware Options
The High Performance Computing Cluster configurations can be enhanced
in the following ways:
 Increased memory in the compute nodes
 Increased internal HDD storage capacity in the compute nodes
 Increased external storage on the master node
 Additional NICs for the compute nodes and master node
 Through Dell Professional Services’ recommendations on faster interconnect
technologies
Related Web Sites
http://www.dell.com/clustering
http://www.oscar.org/
http://www.csm.ornl.gov/oscar/
http://www.beowulf.org/
http://www.dell.com/us/en/esg/topics/segtopic_servers_pedge_rackmain.htm
Service and Support
Dell HPCC systems come with the following:
 Three year limited warranty1 and three years of standard Next
Business Day (NBD) parts replacement and one year of NBD on-site2
labor)
 30-day “Getting Started” help line3
 DirectLine network operating system support upgrades available with
limited three-year warranty
 Telephone support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for
the duration of the limited three-year warranty.
Dell Product Group
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Dell Professional Services offers additional services to assist in:
 Solution Design
 Consultation
 Installation and Setup
 Pre-staging of solution at off-site location
For a copy of our Guarantees or Limited Warranties, please write Dell USA, L.P., Attn:
Warranties, One Dell Way, Round Rock, TX 78682. For more information, visit
www.dell.com/us/en/gen/services/service_service_plans.htm.
2 Service may be provided by third-part y. Technician will be dispatched if necessary
following phone-based troubleshooting. Subject to parts availability, geographical restrictions
and terms of service contract. Service timing dependent upon time of day call placed to Dell.
U.S. only.
3 30-day telephone support program is at no additional charge to help customers with
installation optimization and configuration questions during the critical 30-day period after
shipment of PowerEdge systems. This program is available to customers who purchase
Novell NetWare® or Microsoft Windows NT Server or Windows 2000 Server with their
PowerEdge server from Dell. Support provided after the 30-day Getting Started Program will
be for only the Dell hardware. Beyond 30 days from the invoice date, Dell’s DirectLine
telephone support service is available for purchase for NOS support.
1
Dell, OpenManage, PowerVault and PowerEdge are trademarks of Dell Computer
Corporation. Microsoft and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Other trademarks and trade names may
be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their
products. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.
©Copyright 2002 Dell Computer Corporation. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any
manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Computer Corporation is
strictly forbidden. For more information contact Dell. Dell cannot be responsible for errors in
typography or photography.
Dell Product Group
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